Relaxation Part III — Left Hand Without Tension
A memory that changed the way I understood technique
When I was thinking about left-hand technique, a memory came to mind. And I want to start there, because maybe you went through something similar too.
When I started at the conservatory, I was already “older” — not a kid like most of my classmates.
At that time, it felt like something “bad,” like it put me at a disadvantage… but later I realized it wasn’t.
I was old enough to study with more awareness and discipline.
Once, I was auditing a violin class and I saw a teacher hit a student’s fingers with a pencil to correct their technique.
For everyone else it was normal: a teacher correcting. And I was there like 😱🤯 what?? Is no one going to say anything? Is this okay??
But yes… it was normal.
And one day, in a class, it happened to me.
My teacher hit my fingers very gently with a pencil — but I wasn’t going to stay quiet 😤 I didn’t care if it was soft or not.
I said, “Could you explain the difference between the different ways of placing the finger? Because honestly, I don’t understand. And hitting me with a pencil doesn’t really help me learn.”
He just replied, dryly, “That’s not the right finger position.” 😒
That day I understood two things:
My teacher wasn’t really interested in teaching (at least not me).
If I truly wanted to play well, I had to figure it out on my own.
Why left-hand tension makes everything harder
And studying five hours a day wasn’t enough — I needed to understand how the body works with the instrument (or the other way around). In this case, how to strengthen the left hand without creating tension.
With the double bass, we depend on our natural strength.
The strings are thick, the notes are far apart, and the instrument itself is huge.
When we play with overextended fingers — bending backward — we lose that natural strength.
That makes us press with the thumb, and everything becomes slower, heavier.
Nothing flows.
A simple way to find natural strength in the left hand
My advice:
Imagine your hand forming a “C.”
The fingers in a soft semicircle, like a little claw resting on the string, bringing the instrument slightly toward your body — that way the hand stays stronger and more stable.
The thumb simply supports, relaxed, around the level of the second finger, without pressing.
That small curve (flexible fingers, relaxed thumb) makes your hand stronger and is the foundation of a healthy technique.
Awareness, breathing, and the bigger picture
If you think about it, it all comes down to body awareness, relaxation, and breathing.
My friend Eli discovered that when she learned how to float — and I discovered it with the bass.
We all breathe, of course, but doing it consciously changes everything: it calms the mind, frees the body, and improves your playing.
But that’s a story for another newsletter.
On the bus back to Madrid — a tapping exercise to build left-hand awareness
P.S. If you don’t know who Eli is, that means you missed the previous emails 🙂↔️
